10 Health Mistakes Doctors See You Making

They're watching. Doctors are everywhere. In the car next to you while you scarf down a Sausage McMuffin and Diet Coke in morning traffic. At a nearby table while you sneeze your way through dinner. In the house across the street when you finally turn out the lights at 2 a.m. Most of them have too much tact to intervene when they spy us doing something bad for our health, but now they're breaking their silence on the health mistakes we're making every day.

"For Pete's sake, cover your mouth"

"For Pete's sake, cover your mouth"

I was on an eight-hour flight to France and was sitting behind a woman who started sneezing and coughing as soon as we took off. It was nonstop throughout the trip — and she wasn't covering her mouth when she did it! At the very least, sick people should direct their sneeze or cough into a folded handkerchief or a heavy-duty napkin or tissue. I wished I had brought my face mask with me; I usually bring one on planes to use if I see people being cavalier about coughing. Of course, three days after we landed, I got sick, and it ruined half of my week in Paris.

"Time to lay off the sugar, sweetie"

"Time to lay off the sugar, sweetie"

This morning I was at a coffee shop and saw a woman chatting with the salespeople about how she wants to lose weight, so she's cutting back. Then she hands over her huge reusable cup and orders a nonfat vanilla latte and a vanilla scone! Nonfat or not, that is buttloads of sugar — she'll crash and be starving again in minutes. I wanted to shake her and say, 'What are you doing? Why don't you just start your day with a milkshake and a doughnut?' If you want to lose weight, or even just maintain, you should limit sugar at breakfast and have something fiber-rich like whole grains, plus protein like egg whites or zero-percent Greek yogurt. That will keep you full and set you up for a healthy day.